Norwich City paid £2,212,410 in agents’ fees for the past two transfer windows, according to new official figures published by the FA.

City’s spending was the seventh biggest in the Championship and nearly 10 times more than rivals Ipswich Town, for the period from February 1 2017 to January 31 2018.

The period spanned the arrival of sporting director Stuart Webber and head coach Daniel Farke, who oversaw a huge turnover to the playing staff last summer - including the arrivals of central defenders Grant Hanley and Marcel Franke, along with the exits of the likes of Jacob Murphy and Jonny Howson.

But City’s figure also includes liabilities in this period for payments to agents connected to deals that brought the likes of Steven Naismith, Nelson Oliveira and Matt Jarvis to the club previously.

Hanley’s signing was the headline new arrival in the last summer window with Onel Hernandez, Dennis Srbeny and Kenny McLean arriving in January plus loan deals for Marcus Edwards and Moritz Leitner.

Aston Villa headed the Championship table of expenditure on payments by clubs to agents - or intermediaries as they are officially known – which now have to be published by national associations under Fifa rules governing transfers. The amounts include payments made by clubs on behalf of players.

Villa spent £5,510,180 in the same 12-month period, with relegated Premier League club Sunderland next on £4,370,897. Champions-elect Wolves perhaps surprisingly spent less than both clubs (£2,001,023) and Norwich in attracting an array of talent such as Portuguese international Ruben Neves.

Bolton spent the smallest amount on agents’ fees (£223,432) with Ipswich’s total outlay £241,969 - the second lowest in the division.

The total outlay by Championship clubs on agents’ fees for the latest accounting period was £42,183,048, down slightly on last year’s figure of £42.4m which was a 62pc increase on the last full-year results produced in 2014/15.

But that figure was dwarfed by the Premier League, which spent £211m in the same current period, led by Liverpool (£26.8m).

The amount paid by all English clubs in the top five divisions to agents has risen by 37pc - up from £220m to £257m.

By way of comparison, City spent £1,183,890 in a record 2016 January transfer window spend that saw the arrivals of Timm Klose and Naismith.